Using the Vascular Quality Initiative to improve quality of care and patient outcomes for vascular surgery patients

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Patient Safety Organization program. Available at: https://www.pso.ahrq.gov. Accessed 9.21.2015. Society for Vascular Surgery. Vascular Quality Initiative. Available at: http://www.vascularqualityinitiative.org. Accessed 9.21.2015. De Martino, 2014, Vascular Study Group of New England. Perioperative management with antiplatelet and statin medication is associated with reduced mortality following vascular surgery, J Vasc Surg, 59, 1615, 10.1016/j.jvs.2013.12.013 Wallaert, 2011, Completion imaging after carotid endarterectomy in the Vascular Study Group of New England, J Vasc Surg, 54, 376, 10.1016/j.jvs.2011.01.032 Goodney, 2010, Vascular Study Group of Northern New England. Restenosis after carotid endarterectomy in a multicenter regional registry, J Vasc Surg, 52, 897, 10.1016/j.jvs.2010.05.005 De Martino, 2015, Vascular Quality Initiative. Participation in the Vascular Quality Initiative is associated with improved perioperative medication use, which is associated with longer patient survival, J Vasc Surg, 61, 1010, 10.1016/j.jvs.2014.11.073 Bouri, 2014, Meta-analysis of secure randomised controlled trials of beta-blockade to prevent perioperative death in non-cardiac surgery, Heart, 100, 456, 10.1136/heartjnl-2013-304262 Scali, 2015, Pre-operative beta-blockers do not improve cardiac outcomes after major elective vascular surgery and may be harmful, J Vasc Surg, 62, 166, 10.1016/j.jvs.2015.01.053 Mauney, 1995, Stroke rate is markedly reduced after carotid endarterectomy by avoidance of protamine, J Vasc Surg, 22, 264, 10.1016/S0741-5214(95)70140-0 Stone, 2011, Vascular Study Group of New England. Clopidogrel is not associated with major bleeding complications during peripheral arterial surgery, J Vasc Surg, 54, 779, 10.1016/j.jvs.2011.03.003 Patel, 2013, Vascular Study Group of New England. Shared quality data are associated with increased protamine use and reduced bleeding complications after carotid endarterectomy in the Vascular Study Group of New England, J Vasc Surg, 58, 10.1016/j.jvs.2013.06.064 Kalish, 2014, Society for Vascular Surgery Patient Safety Organization Arterial Quality Committee. Factors associated with surgical site infection after lower extremity bypass in the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI), J Vasc Surg, 60, 1238, 10.1016/j.jvs.2014.05.012 Bertges, 2010, Vascular Study Group of New England. The Vascular Study Group of New England Cardiac Risk Index (VSG-CRI) predicts cardiac complications more accurately than the Revised Cardiac Risk Index in vascular surgery patients, J Vasc Surg, 52, 674, 10.1016/j.jvs.2010.03.031 Beck, 2009, Vascular Study Group of Northern New England. Predicting 1-year mortality after elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, J Vasc Surg, 49, 838, 10.1016/j.jvs.2008.10.067 Goodney, 2011, Vascular Study Group of New England. Validation of the Society for Vascular Surgery׳s objective performance goals for critical limb ischemia in everyday vascular surgery practice, J Vasc Surg, 54, 10.1016/j.jvs.2010.11.107 Schanzer, 2009, Vascular Study Group of Northern New England. Validation of the PIII CLI risk score for the prediction of amputation-free survival in patients undergoing infrainguinal autogenous vein bypass for critical limb ischemia, J Vasc Surg, 50, 769, 10.1016/j.jvs.2009.05.055 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Available at: http://www.cms.gov. Accessed 9.21.2015. Medical Device Epidemiology Network. Available at: http://www.mdepinet.org. Accessed 9.21.2015. Comfort, 2014, International comparative evaluation of fixed-bearing non-posterior-stabilized and posterior-stabilized total knee replacements, J Bone Joint Surg Am, 96, 65, 10.2106/JBJS.N.00462 Keurentjes, 2014, Which implant should we use for primary total hip replacement? A systematic review and meta-analysis, J Bone Joint Surg Am, 96, 79, 10.2106/JBJS.N.00397 Kutcher, 2014, Comparative effectiveness of drug-eluting stents on long-term outcomes in elderly patients treated for in-stent restenosis: a report from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry, Catheter Cardiovasc Interv, 83, 171, 10.1002/ccd.25108 American Venous Forum. Available at: http://www.veinforum.org. Accessed 9.21.2015. Society for Vascular Medicine. http://www.vascularmed.org. Accessed 9.21.2015. Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery. Available at: http://www.snisonline.org. Accessed 9.21.2015.